Most Expensive Public Speakers in US

Most Expensive Public Speakers in US

1. Donald Trump: $1.5 Million

In 2006 and 2007, The Learning Annex, a producer of seminars and workshops, hired Trump to speak at 17 real estate investing seminars and paid him $1.5 million for each of the 17 hour-long speeches, according to Forbes.

2. Bill Clinton: $150,000-$450,000

“I never had a nickel to my name until I got out of the White House, and now I’m a millionaire,” Clinton told a audience in Kentucky in 2006. By 2007, Clinton had amassed nearly $40 million in speaking fees, according to a Washington Post report. Though some of his earnings were used to pay off the $12 million in legal debt Clinton rung up during his presidency, the majority was donated to the Clinton Foundation.

3. Rudy Guiliani: $270,000

Guiliani banked $9.2 million in speaking fees from January 2006 through February 2007, as noted in the personal financial disclosure report he filed in May 2007 to run for president.

4. Tony Blair: $250,000+

During a 2009 visit to the Philippines, Blair earned $573,400 for two half-hour speeches to a telecom company that sponsored the speech, according to the U.K’s Times of London. In just two years out office, Blair had earned more than $21.5 million in speaking fees.

5. Alan Greenspan: $250,000

In 2006, within a week of his retirement, Greenspan earned $250,000 for a speech he gave at a Lehman Brothers dinner, reported the New York Post.

6. Larry Summers: $135,000

An April 2009 report by the WSJ said that Summers, the Director of the White House’s National Economic Council, had “over the past year…made a total of about 40 speaking appearances…with fees totaling about $2.77 million,” according to a financial disclosure form released by the White House. The appearances included a speaking engagement at a Goldman Sachs event for which Summers was paid $135,000.

7. Lance Armstrong: $100,000+

The seven-time Tour de France champion charges over $100,000 to speak, and in 2009 reportedly asked for $750,000 for a series of speeches given overseas, according to OnlineUniversities.com.

8. Sir Richard Branson: $100,000+

With topics like,”Screw It. Let’s Do It,” how could companies not be willing to shell out more than $100,000 to book the businessman behind Virgin Group, Ltd?

9. Sarah Palin: $100,000.

Palin’s typical fee for speaking engagements is $100,000, says Politico. Since leaving office in July 2009, the former Alaskan governor has earned more than $12 million through television, book deals, and speaking appearances, according to an ABC report.

10. Al Gore: $100,000

The former US vice-president who has reinvented himself as a climate change campaigner charges about $100,000 for an hour-long speech, says a 2009 Times of London report.